2015 was a year of firsts for the design and construction teams at Dye Designs Group lead by Cynthia Dye, ASGCA. In August, Dye Designs delivered its first golf course in Oceania with the opening of the Exclusiv’ Golf de Deva Club at the Sheraton New Caledonia Deva Resort & Spa in Bourail, New Caledonia. In October, Dye Designs followed with its first golf course in Eurasia. Located in Azerbaijan, The Dreamland Golf Club is the first golf course in the capital city of Baku.
Continuing that trend in 2016, Cynthia Dye’s first golf course in Continental Europe broke ground for construction in January. The design of the Dye Course at Falesia D’El Rey Resort – located in Obidos, Portugal – has evolved throughout a 15 years period of sensitive planning and permitting followed by ownership change. Says Dye, “I have never worked so hard for so long to see a project through to construction. For many years we had to stay focused on making this course a reality. Now it’s very rewarding to see it come true.”
The master planned community will include multiple residential products, hotel sites and a commercial village centre with all amenities anchored by an 18-hole seaside links golf course. The site is on the Atlantic coastline 1-hour drive northwest of Lisbon. The existing terrain is natural rolling sand dunes and coastal vegetation interspersed with areas of pine groves overlooking the sea from a variety of elevations above the cliffs at the mouth of the Obidos Laguna.
The golf course design process required a long term, careful study of the site conditions, characteristics and restrictions. The Dye team worked closely with the local government’s planning and engineering departments as well as several concerned national ministries. The design evolved through many reviews and exhaustive revisions to ensure a minimum disturbance of the environment and protection of the areas of existing drainage basins, dinosaur fossils and heritage pine trees.
Cynthia Dye recently spent 10 days onsite overseeing the final adjustments to the centerlines, green complexes and fairway edges. She commented, “Over the years the site has continuously changed due to the raw elements, a forest fire and public access issues. We needed to be certain that the final layout took into account these subtle changes. We are now ready to create great golf holes.” Dye’s construction specialists will join the effort in the coming weeks providing guidance and the finish details to the local contractor’s team.
The Dye Course at Falesia D’El Rey Resort will open for play in the spring of 2017 joining its ‘sister’ resort, Praia D’El Rey Marriott Golf & Beach Resort located on the beach 5 km. to the south. Praia D’El Rey has consistently been rated as a top-level destination golf resort in Continental Europe.
Dye Designs www.dyedesigns.com